Stepping back into 1814 for A BREATH OF FROST was just like eating the most delicious, decadent dessert. I adore the language, the complicated social etiquette I would never be able to follow, the candlelight and corsets.  And having loved both PRIDE & PREJUDICE, and the fantasy genre for as long as I can remember, combining them gives me the best of both worlds. I can have my cake and eat it too. Because frankly, that saying is just cruel. If I have cake, I am eating it. With historical fantasy, I can take a landmark like London Bridge and fill it with goblin-men and witch-girls. I can add magic and strange creatures and secret powers. It’s especially satisfying to give my girls an edge in an historical setting that strove to blunt them down. Not to mention that there is instant romance to bowing gentlemen and curtsying ladies and kisses stolen in ballrooms. Just as there is instant danger to magic gone awry, restless spirits, and the threat of deadly curses. One without the other is like that cake without frosting. And at the end of the day, people are people, whether they’re in 1814 or 2014, whether they’re…

Top Ten Reasons to Get Swept Away by THROWN Hello! I’m Colette Auclair, and I’m thrilled to be here. My debut novel, THROWN, is a December release and I’m delighted to be here with you during my very first book launch. So… Why spend your time with my book? Aside from the fact that I’m a wonderful person, even though you don’t know me and I’m asking you to take my word for it? As it happens, I’ve made a list for you. 1. The cover is pretty. First things first. I mean, come on, look at that gorgeous horse! (And no, it’s not my horse, and no I had nothing to do with it.) 2. Grady Brunswick, the hero, is to die for. I know he’s fictional, I know I created him, but I have to tell you, I’m so in love with him I can’t even stand it. I have to remind myself that he isn’t going to show up on my doorstep and whisk me off to his mansion. I think you’ll like him too—he’s a famous movie star, but he’s not stuck up; he’s charming; he’s funny; he’s scrumptiously handsome; he plays the piano like Billy…

Let me introduce a character type—an independent, strong-willed woman, who has her life together. She owns a successful business, bought a home and is living a comfortable lifestyle thanks to all her hard work and dedication she has put into her career. When it comes to her business, she is a logical, savvy woman who knows what she wants and will bust major butt to obtain it. When it comes to matters of the heart, well, logic seems to fly straight out the window. In her head, she knows the type of man she needs: A settled down, ready-to-commit, has-his-life-together guy. Her heart disagrees. Her heart wants, has always wanted, her best friend: A the-party-never-stops, why-commit-to-one-woman, YOLO guy. (YOLO=you only live once) If you haven’t figured out by now, I’m talking about my heroine from my upcoming release, FIGHTING LOVE. Julie has been in love with Tommy “Lightning” Sparks since she was ten. As much as she loves Tommy as her best friend, she resents the hold he has on her heart, but no matter how hard she tries to move past him, her heart refuses to let him go. Love is such an odd thing. Most of the time,…

Thanks so much for having me at Fresh Fiction! My December release is GENTLEMEN PREFER MISCHIEF. As you might guess from the title, it’s a Regency-era story, and it’s a little playful. I love a story that can make me laugh while also touching my heart, and I hope that’s the kind of experience readers have with this book. I thought it would be fun to do a little character interview with my hero, Hal, Viscount Roxham. Tell us about you in five words or fewer: Playful, athletic, loyal, flirtatious (might as well be honest, *winks*) What do you see as your purpose in life? Do we have to get so serious right away? I’m not wild about that word “purpose”—it’s kind of stuffy. How about my purpose for today, which, actually, is pretty entertaining: my neighbor Lily Teagarden asked for my help in solving the mystery of the lights and sounds that have been observed in the woods between our properties, which people think are being caused by an evil spirit. I’ve been away for several years and just came back to my estate, so this was news to me. You know was else was news to me? Lily’s…

Hello, my name is Susanna, and I’m a writer. Years ago, my friend, the amazingly talented writer Tina Whittle, and I decided to go on a writing retreat at a horse ranch where we didn’t ride a single horse, but rambled about the grounds, drank wine, ate chocolate and talked about writing. We are great at chatting about writing, whereas actually putting words on paper is a different matter. She was about to get published by a prestigious press, and I was about to not get published for several more years. We had that great writerly philosophical discussion of what it means to your identity and psychology to admit in public that you are a writer. So when the business manager asked that fateful, “what do you do?” Tina took a breath and said, “I’m a writer.” A clear, concise statement to the universe. I hedged about the matter, saying I was a writer, mommy, web developer, pet owner, housekeeper, etc. Anything I could say to dilute that psychologically pungent word: writer. After all, I wasn’t really a writer. Real writers were published. And then a miracle happened, my book RAKES AND RADISHES was picked up by Carina Press. This…

I’m excited to be back at Fresh Fiction talking about…finding my sweet voice. Especially in the week my latest sweet romance, TANGLING WITH THE CEO has been released. In high school, Annie Seaton, author of The Affairs Series and DANGEROUS DESIRE had two goals. First, I always wanted to be the sweet girl. You know, a bit like Sandy in Grease … or like Samantha in Sixteen Candles. But nah … I was always the academic one. I was the serious one with the glasses on and my head down writing stories and screenplays… stories all with happily ever afters. But I was always fascinated by and quietly watched the bad boys from afar. And second, I wanted to live by the beach. Loved that scene where Sandy and Danny got together at the beach, just like From Here to Eternity. So I read sweet romances, dreamed of holidays by the ocean… and watched those boys. On to university and sitting in lectures, my head was still full of sweet romance stories, and not the stream-of-consciousness techniques I was studying in Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse. Don’t get me wrong, I loved reading the classics and more literary works and…

Hello from the Guild Hall in Bath! As an ice-breaker to each leg of my Blog Tour for UNDRESSING MR. DARCY, I’m taking you along for a ride to England, where I traveled during the summer of 2012 to do some research for the book. Said research, however, did not include seeing Mr. Darcy do an educational striptease act (which I will explain in a second). Where am I on this stop? I attended the Summer Ball hosted by the Jane Austen Centre and held at the Guildhall in Bath. Here I am in costume with some handsome Regency gents! The Guildhall itself is gorgeous and, during the Jane Austen Festival in the fall, it houses the Regency Fayre where you can buy all kinds of Regency-inspired goodies. The dancing at the ball that summer evening proved impeccable, the music–inspirational, and the room–divine. So, let’s get back to this educational striptease thing. Yes, lets! Here’s how it all started. I was researching Regency male clothing for my first book, DEFINITELY NOT MR. DARCY, when I stumbled across a website in England called The History Wardrobe. Among its offerings, it featured a live show of a “Mr. Darcy” who would take…

In a blog interview recently, someone asked me why I write fantasy. My answer was that I always wanted the world to be more interesting than it really is. For example, one autumn morning when I was a child, I looked out to see a leaf that looked like a little fairy perched on a wind-tossed tree branch. I imagined it was a tiny gnome hanging on for a wild ride. When I got older and discovered the genre of urban fantasy, where magical elements are part of ordinary life, I was hooked. As a psychologist, I can’t help but ponder the question of why I and others like fantasy, and especially urban fantasy, from a psychological perspective. There’s definitely the aspect of wanting more magic in life, but I believe it goes deeper. A lot of the problems people come to me with end up boiling down to how they handle real or perceived power imbalances, both externally and within themselves. Urban fantasy is a great way to explore power and how it works – and could work – in our world. So, with that in mind, here are some reasons I write and read urban fantasy: We want…

Everyone at Etopia Press is excited and, well, practically crazy over the changes happening this month! We have a brand new website going up on December 6th, with all new imprints—something for every reader. We’re really happy to announce this here, at Fresh Fiction, and invite all the readers in to celebrate with us! Here’s the basics of our new lines: Introducing Deadly Desires! Deadly Desires is Etopia Press’s romantic suspense imprint. Strong, alpha heroes; brave, indomitable heroines, and tense, fast-moving plots filled with danger and suspense. Police, military, and paramilitary men are natural heroes, but we didn’t forget the strong heroines—FBI agents, detectives, or just ordinary Janes who fall into the role of amateur sleuth or “woman in danger” against their will. These stories have lots of conflict and drama—something important is always at stake, and death lurks around every corner. Welcome Feral! Feral is Etopia Press’s paranormal romance imprint. As always, strong, alpha heroes; brave, savvy heroines, and untamed paranormal worlds brimming with danger, excitement, and passion. Shape-shifters and werewolves, vampires and witches, angels and demons, psychics and ghosts… if there’s another reality beyond ours, we’ve got it. Feral heroes are just that—wild, untamed, and most certainly on…

When I was growing up, secretaries didn’t get much air time. There was Janine from Ghostbusters—she was cool—but even she was a side character, around to make smart comments, have a crush on Egon, and maybe have an adventure or two in the cartoons. (Of course I watched the cartoons. Child of the eighties, here.) It wasn’t a job that really lent itself to main-character status. Except it should have. I realized that when I grew up, took a couple secretarial jobs myself, and realized that I was no damn good at it. There were too many moving parts; too many requests coming in from all over at the same time; too many strange people to whom I had to be nice but not too accommodating and honest but not too honest. I’m a cranky introvert (think Henry Higgins with an extra X chromosome) who can’t remember where she put her keys half the time. (Didn’t help that one of my main employers was a guy my friends and I now call Vile Pantsless Ex-Boss, for…reasons.) The other thing I learned from my failed attempts at gainful employment is just how much power and information a good secretary can have….